Contemporary Issues in Intellectual Property Law

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• In-depth knowledge of contemporary issues in the various fields of intellectual property in both a domestic and global context;
• Of the relationship between intellectual property rights and other areas of law such as environmental law, competition law and healthcare law.
• The UK, EU, US and International Intellectual property law
• the political, commercial reasoning, and discourse shaping this legal domain.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Evaluate critically proposals of reforms and solutions to contemporary intellectual property issues;
• Engage in legal, moral, social and political debates which inform the subject matter and scope of the various rights at the national, European level and international level.
• Understand and explain the philosophical, political, social and economic context in which IP law exists.
• assess the existing intellectual property legal structure critically and analyze its consequential political, cultural, and economic impacts.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically examine complex issues in a concentrated and detailed manner;
• Identify and critically evaluate the main literature and sources relevant to the subject.
• Identify and critically debate the main issues at stake in the particular topic(s) being examined;
• Conduct comprehensive research and produce scholarly essays about contemporary issues and debates;

The content of the module will vary depending on the debates taking place in the real world. Concentrating on the formation and implementation of intellectual property law, students will gain a profound understanding of the political, commercial reasoning, and discourse shaping this legal domain. This will enable them to assess the existing intellectual property legal structure critically and analyse its consequential political, cultural, and economic impacts.

Some examples of topics that will be covered in the module where controversial clashes have emerged between IP rights and international norms in various fora including competition law, human rights, development and environmental agendas. Specifically: (i) pharmaceutical industry, biological organisms and gene technologies; (ii) digitisation of knowledge and culture; (iii) competition and IP Rights; (iv) traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and traditional cultural expressions; (v) IP Rights and human rights to health, education, development and free speech.

Teaching and learning methods

The module will be taught by weekly 2 hour seminars. The students will be supported through the Blackboard learning portal with additional material and learning such as individual Blog writing.

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Legislation and case law. This module will not necessarily have one main textbook, but instead the students will be required to read legislation and case law from the various jurisdictions that we are focusing on. The resources will either be made available to the students via Blackboard and Library Reading List or will be available online free of charge.

Assessment strategy

The module will be assessed by a 5000 word portfolio that the students will work on alongside the taught seminars.

The students will be able to submit a draft of the portfolio midway through the module (the formative assignment) which they will receive written individual feedback on to allow them to develop and improve for their final submission of the portfolio (the summative assessment).

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.